Production Plan

Unit G321 – Foundation Portfolio in Media – Production Plan Template
Charlie Batcheler
Week beginning: November 23 2015
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday
Managing The
schedule
creating a
schedule to
prepare for any
mistakes
Meeting of
editorial staff.
Monthly
magazine so
date set for
completion and
distribution to
retailers
December 18.
Production
schedule written
with editorial
staff.
Meeting of
editorial staff to
decide on content
of magazine
including all
articles and
photography.
Who will be
allocated which
articles and if any
outside writers or
photographers
will be needed.
Budget meeting
to establish if this
month’s magazine
is within budget.
All tasks allocated
to in house and
outside writers
and
photographers.
All people due to
be interviewed
contacted and
dates set for week
between
tomorrow
November 26 and
December 3.
Writers begin to
research articles
using in house
resources such as
internet, phone &
books. They have
one week to
submit the articles
completed.
Photographers
given details of
what is wanted.
Again one week
given to complete
and submit all
photographs.
Writers continue
to research and
write and can
leave to research
outside the
magazine offices.
And if booked
interviews with
people
appearing in the
magazine can
take place.
Depending on
booking photos
can start to be
taken.
Complete by: Complete by: Complete by: Complete by: Complete by: Complete by: Complete by:

24 November 25November 26 November 3 December December 3
Week beginning: November 30 2015
Writing,
interviews, art
production and
photography.
Writing,
interviews, art
production and
photography.
Last day for
writing,
interviews, art
production and
photography.
All writers and
photographers in
house checking
and finishing on
work to be
submitted by
tomorrow.
Deadline for
submission of all
articles and
photography.
December 3 December 4 December 4 December 5 December 5

Week beginning: December 7 2015
Sub editing.
Laying up.
Captioning etc.
Sub editing.
Laying up.
Captioning etc.
Final stages of
sub editing.
Laying up.
Captioning etc.
Proofreading
starts on finished
parts of magazine.
Proofreading
continues until
complete.
Completed
magazine to be
sent to printer.
Pre-press checks
done to make
sure printer has
all correct fonts
and photographs
etc.
Week beginning: December 14 2015

Proof sent back
to editor for
approval.
Proof approved
and sent back to
printer.
Magazine printed.
Magazine taken to
distribution
warehouse.
Magazine sent to
subscribers.
Magazine goes
on sale in retail
outlets.
Production process
The process of production of the magazine starts with establishing when the date of production will be. Since this is a monthly magazine the
production date will be the same date each month.
Once the date is established a schedule needs to be drawn up showing what is going to be done and on what days and when each part of the
magazine must be finished by. The schedule is key to success and must be managed well and kept to for numerous reasons, including the fact it has
impact on many people and potential booking of locations or photographers or hire of equipment.
The next stage is for the editorial team to decide on what the content is going to be for this month. This includes all decisions about photos content,
specific articles, other writers they might use who are not in house, if there are going to be any free gifts this month. And obviously if the budget
they have available from the publisher is going to cover all the needs for this months edition. The editorial team on a small magazine will be the
editor, who is in overall charge of the magazine, he may write some pieces too, but mainly he will manage the process and will be central to
deciding the content of the magazine. The editorial team will include a features editor, who may also be the features writer in a small magazine,
they will be in charge of organizing and possibly deciding on the features content of the magazine. There will also be an art editor who will be in
charge of all art work and photographic work. Larger magazines could have a much larger editorial staff including editors for specific sections and
other specialist editors. But it seems most magazines have a much smaller staff now.
Getting the magazine content together is the next and longest stage of production. Meetings will be organized with anyone due to be interviewed
or photographed for the magazine. All in house and any other writers who may be used being assigned to research and write articles. At the same
time any and all artwork, which includes photos and illustrations, will be assigned to people to do.

The next major stage is the sub-editing stage. This is done by a sub-editor or on a smaller magazine by the editor. The sub editing process is for all
the magazine article content and includes fact checking, spelling corrections, grammar and punctuation corrections. Sub editors will usually also
work on basic layout of the pages. There will be an in house style for the sub editor to follow in terms of how they use punctuation and spelling and
layout.
In a large magazine the layout will be done next by specific layout staff. On smaller ones it will be done by the sub editor or the editor. They will
put the content into the house style of the magazine and layout all pages and all content including adverts. This is done on desktop publishing
(DTP) software packages such as InDesign and Pagemaker.
The next stage is proofreading a full copy to look for mistakes. This is usually done on a hard copy. The mistakes are then corrected on the
electronic copy of the magazine.
Next the final copy is emailed to the printer. There is a process which happens now called ‘pre-press’ where the staff must check all the correct
fonts and photos etc are sent to the printer. Next the printer will print a few copies of the magazine and send them back to the editor for the editor
to once again check for mistakes. These copies are known as printer’s proofs. After they have been approved or mistakes corrected the full print
run will take place. However having spoken to a contact of my father’s who was an editor until very recently at IPC in Croydon they no longer get
sent a hard printer’s proof and the final proof is done via web pages sent from the printers.
The final stage is once printed the magazines will be boxed up and sent to a warehouse from where it will be distributed to shops and then sold to
the public.
From messaging Ivan McCutcheon I also established that from nothing to distributed the monthly magazine he used to edit took the full month.
But everything is done on a two week ‘rolling schedule’. In other words the first two weeks of the month are ‘planning, commissioning, writing,
photography and research’. The next two weeks for the next edition are spent ‘laying out, subbing, captioning, proofing and sending to press’. But
during that second two week period they would start again for the edition after next with the previous two weeks of ‘planning, commissioning,
writing’ etc. So they are always working on two editions at a time. Basically first two weeks are planning and creating content, the second two
weeks are production of the magazine itself. (Anything in quote marks is a direct quote from Ivan McCutcheon).

The distribution of the magazine could be done by Marketforce, they are the biggest magazine distribution company.
Information from:
http://hosbeg.com/the-magazine-production-process/
http://www.magazinepublisher.com/startup.html
http://www.magazinedesigning.com/meet-the-editorial-team/
http://www.marketforce.co.uk
Messenger conversation on Saturday 21 November with Ivan McCutcheon retired editor of VolksWorld magazine an IPC production.

Production Plan

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